FERH 17

Chapter 17

“Please, Uncle. Isn’t there some way?”

Vanessa clasped her hands together, her voice trembling.

“You know how hard I’ve tried to win his heart. And Uncle, you also said it would be better for me to become the duchess, didn’t you? Right?”

Hearing her half-melted words through tears, Royhum frowned.

‘That idiot… While she ate well and lived like a princess in the ducal house thanks to me, she never contacted me once. And now that she’s in trouble, she comes running?’

What Royhum had done for Vanessa was nothing more than arranging a few private meetings with Rupert.

Even so, he believed his contribution was significant.

Just as two hands must meet to make a sound, a man and a woman must meet for anything to happen.

If Royhum had spare room to maneuver, he would have gladly helped make his niece the duchess.

After all, he intended to present the bill afterward and collect a portion of the ducal estate.

But now, circumstances were different.

‘The old fox is itching to carve me out this very moment. What duchess? Duchess, my ass.’

He didn’t know what the Empress Dowager intended to achieve using the Special Taxation Bureau, but it was clear the outcome would not be pleasant for him.

‘Naturally, she’ll be aiming to shrink the Ministry of Finance. And pulling me down from the minister’s seat is probably the final goal.’

Just like the late Empress had done.

But he couldn’t let his guard down — the Empress Dowager was far more seasoned than the dead Empress.

Instead of acting directly, she had chosen to cut him down using Lionel as the axe.

‘Damn it, does that girl have no weaknesses at all?’

To put a leash around Lionel’s neck, who ran wild like a mad colt, he needed a weakness.

But Lionel had a reputation for being so prickly that not even bribes got through to her.

‘Is there no way?’

A way to get a hold on Lionel.

Royhum shifted his gaze to Vanessa.

‘Ah… of course.’

He realized this niece sitting right in front of him might be more useful than he thought.

There is no such thing as a perfectly clean noble house.

‘If Lionel has no weakness… then I can just dig into House Vinsenhain.’

Especially large households — the bigger they were, the more hidden corruption accumulated.

And while he was at it, giving the Prime Minister a blow would be nice too.

That man had been irritating Royhum for pretending not to care while protecting his daughter.

“Niece. There is one way.”

At Royhum’s suggestive words, Vanessa’s ears perked up.

“You want me t-to leak… the duchy’s account books?”

Hearing the method, she nearly fainted.

Being raised in a noble family, she fully understood how grave a matter this was.

“What are you worried about? If things go wrong, we can just say Lionel did it.”

“But still…”

“And didn’t you say she visited the ducal house recently?”

“Well… yes, but—”

“Is there a better time to frame someone than this?”

Royhum’s words aligned perfectly with Vanessa’s desire to bring Lionel down.

“Is that really all I have to do?”

“That’s all.”

Royhum patted her shoulder as if he were a kind uncle.

“Don’t worry. I’ll handle the rest. You just sit still and wait.”

Vanessa leaned her cheek on his shoulder, sniffling.

“Thank you, Uncle. I won’t forget this favor.”

Because she was crying, she didn’t see Royhum’s twisted grin.

Nor the blatant ridicule in it.

‘Stupid girl.’

Lionel had stayed at the duchy only briefly. If the internal documents were leaked, Vanessa would obviously be the prime suspect.

But—

‘What does that have to do with me?’

She had spent years in the ducal house yet never managed to rise above “fiancée.” Meaning there was no hope for her anyway.

‘I have to survive.’

Just as he always had.

A few days later, Vanessa sent a copy of the ledgers just as Royhum instructed.

Royhum skimmed through the pages.

Then, before one particular record, the corner of his mouth lifted.

“Found it.”

A weakness of House Vinsenhain.

* * *

Royhum’s highest priority was always survival.

Bringing Lionel down came second.

He had to stay alive to take revenge later.

To do that, he needed to prevent Lionel and the others at the Taxation Bureau from completing their report.

So he made sure House Vinsenhain’s dirty laundry “accidentally” flowed to the Special Taxation Bureau.

‘People always favor their own.’

If the issue concerned her own family, even the wild Lionel wouldn’t be able to act freely.

And the next day—

The materials Royhum leaked were discovered early in the morning by other Taxation Bureau employees.

“What is this?”

Never seen this before.

Mel picked up the documents.

The moment she checked the contents, she froze solid.

While Mel’s hands trembled, her senior Till approached, puzzled.

“What? What are you looking at?”

But soon he, too, froze in the exact same pose.

“…”

Wilbrin, who had just arrived, was confused to see both of them plastered to the desk in identical postures.

“What’s wrong with you guys? You look like you saw something you shouldn’t—”

Before she finished, her eyes landed on the documents.

And as soon as she realized they were evidence of tax evasion by House Vinsenhain—

The number of stone statues became three.

How much time passed like that?

“…Uh.”

“Oh.”

“Mm.”

They came to a conclusion.

“…Cover it.”

A surprisingly simple conclusion.

“We didn’t see anything today.”

Lionel had only just begun establishing herself in the Taxation Bureau. How humiliating would it be for her to see her own family’s corruption?

More than that — losing someone as capable as Lionel would be a loss not just to the bureau but to the whole empire.

They had to prevent her spirit from being crushed by a single document.

Fortunately, this report was to be submitted by the Special Taxation Bureau.

If they agreed, a single family’s blemish could be erased as if it never existed.

While they were wholeheartedly embracing the “we are family” mentality—

“…What are you doing?”

They were caught red-handed by Lionel, who arrived exactly on time.

* * *

“Well, you see…”

Till and the others stood stiffly at attention.

They explained the whole situation like they were being audited by higher-ups.

They themselves knew how ridiculous they looked, but they couldn’t relax.

Every time they faced Lionel, it felt like dealing with someone far above their rank.

Especially now that they were in the wrong — they watched her anxiously.

When they finished, Lionel offered a one-sentence summary.

“So you’re saying my father committed tax evasion.”

Her blunt, direct statement made Mel hiccup, and Till frantically waved his hands.

“No, no — that’s only a possibility! We’d have to investigate properly.”

Wilbrin chimed in.

“Right. And if we cover it up here, who’s going to know? We’re the ones writing the report anyway—”

But Wilbrin’s sentence was cut off.

“…Are you saying you intend to falsify the report?”

Her gaze was so cold and sharp that even senior Till forgot to breathe for a moment.

“Well, sometimes things get… omitted during drafting, right? Don’t worry. The higher-ups will think it’s just a mistake.”

Lionel was adamant.

“If there is evidence of wrongdoing, of course it must be recorded.”

“…”

“There are no exceptions.”

Her firm tone carried the weight of law.

‘Well… she’s not wrong, but…’

Because Lionel was so unwavering, the others grew uneasy instead.

“Are you really sure? The Prime Minister is your father.”

“Even if my father committed a crime, that has nothing to do with my own guilt. Why should I hesitate?”

She had a point.

But—

‘Do they think other departments covered for relatives because they didn’t know that?’

When someone’s family is involved in a scandal, people instinctively want to look away.

First, because reporting someone you know strains relationships.

Second, because if a relative is arrested for corruption, it harms your own performance evaluations.

And so, the culture of “looking the other way” spread — if I’m protected this time, I’ll protect someone else next time.

That’s how entire organizations rot.

Wilbrin suddenly remembered rumors about Lionel.

‘They said she complained so much about every task that people had to issue written orders to her.’

He had thought the rumor was too detailed to be completely baseless.

‘But maybe that rumor came from Lionel refusing to tolerate corruption…?’